The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Proof, a look at the life of blues great Dinah Washington and a rarely produced Tennessee Williams play are some of the highlights of the 2001-02 season at the Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta. The season, which comprises 11 plays on three stages, will also feature directors David Petrarca and Jon Jory, the former Actors Theatre of Louisville artistic director. The Alliance Stage season kicks off with Oliver Goldstick's Dinah Was, Aug. 23-Sept. 23, directed by Petrarca. A biography of legendary blues singer Dinah Washington, it incorporates songs from her 20-year career. The show had a well-received run Off-Broadway three seasons back.
Williams' A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur focuses on the hopes and dreams of four St. Louis women in the 1930s. Directed by Kent Gash, it runs Oct. 11-Nov. 4. A Christmas Carol, adapted and directed by David H. Bell, fills the holiday season, Nov. 16-Dec. 30.
Jory directs Marivaux's The Game of Love and Chance, translated by Stephen Wadsworth, Feb. 14-March 10. When two people who have never met are forced into an arranged marriage, they get others to stand in for them and watch their courtship from afar.
Artistic director Susan V. Booth helms David Auburn's 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner, Proof, March 21-April 21, about a young woman coping with the loss of her math genius father and the mystery surrounding a mathematical proof.
Closing out the season is The Wiz, May 9-June 9, an African American adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, by William F. Brown (book) and Charlie Smalls (music and lyrics). Kenny Leon directs and Patdro Harris choreographs. The Hertz Stage season kicks off with Richard Dresser's Below the Belt, Sept. 8-Oct. 14. B.J. Jones directs this absurdist comedy about corporate politics. It will be followed by Cheryl West's Jar the Floor, Jan. 26-March, 3, in which a woman startles her African American family by bringing home her white girlfriend. Andrea Frye directs. Jorge Ignacio Cortinas' new play Sleepwalkers, April 13 May 19, looks at a Havana family in the shadow of the Castro regime. Ruben Polendo directs.
The children's theatre season features productions of Androcles and the Lion, adapted by Aurand Harris and Rosemary Newcott, Oct. 27-Nov. 17; and Pinocchio 3.5. An update of the classic fairy tale, it features a wealthy computer designer with no children who builds a robot named Pinocchio. Written by Eric Coble and directed by Newcott, it runs Jan. 12 Feb. 3.
For subscription tickets, call (404) 733-4600; for single tickets, call (404) 733-5000. For more information, visit www.alliancetheatre.org.
